2009 Country Reports on Terrorism - Turkmenistan

United States Department of State, 2009 Country Reports on Terrorism - Turkmenistan, 5 August 2010, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/4c63b61ac.html [accessed 10 December 2016]

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Since the September 2008 violence in Ashgabat's Khitrovka neighborhood, the Turkmenistan government has not reported any other terrorist incidents. The government maintains a military-style counterterrorism unit that is reported to have hostage rescue and explosives threat management capabilities. There is also a Department for the Prevention of Terrorism and Organized Crime in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In May, the Turkmenistan government passed an Anti-Money Laundering and Counterterrorism Financing Law, which went into effect in August. This law is understood to have aimed at creating a new state agency to collect information and uncover suspicious transactions. Although Turkmenistan's law enforcement and security agencies exerted stringent control over society, Turkmenistan's border guards, customs services, and law enforcement were small in size and uneven in quality. While the government strictly controlled official border crossings and along main roads, clandestine passage was still possible due to long and porous borders that stretch across mountain and desert terrain. The United States worked with Turkmenistan's authorities to improve the quality of border checkpoints. In October, a new checkpoint at Farap on the border with Uzbekistan was opened.